F3 Builders Thread

Adjustments.jpg
Finished a mono pair F3 clones…
Thanks to Mr. Pass and the solid contributions here in the forum!
These amps sound sweet[emoji445][emoji106]
 
Hello,

I have some problems about the PSU, hope someone can help.

1. I have a transformer with dual 35VAC secondary instead of 18VAC, what should be the new values of R1-R10 and C1-C8?

2. Since I don't need the negative voltage for F3, should I break the lower half V+ connection to GND and connect V- to GND instead? In this case, the left/right channels can have its own PSU output. Anything wrong with this design?

That is how I built my PSU.

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That rectifier will do nicely.

You can use "Fast Recovery" type rectifiers, but generally they don't come in a bridge package. They will reduce ringing in the transformer. You can also use Quasimodo to pick a RC snubber network that will do the same. Neither are necessary; both are possibly of benefit.
 
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I got my F3 up and running. It is a Rawson build that I saw on audio mart at a nice price. Having updated a pile of rawsons last year, I thought I’d try this F3. I added grounding - it was totally absent. Classic rawson. It looks like the F1 psu, or Jeff’s up above. 2 single rails, each rail with a cl60 to chassis. And I have the mains ground to chassis, that was missing, too. I added snubbers and a power LED. Blue, of course. It sings on the test bench.

No other mods yet. All caps are original. Perhaps I’ll go for enhancements in the future.

I’ll try it on my horns this week. How will it compare to the mighty SissySIT?
 

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Official Court Jester
Joined 2003
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nice amp per se

of course, Blue Led being a necessity, Papa's secret ingredient

to relieve more of secrets - one channel must have Blue LED powered from positive rail, while second channel must have Blue LED powered from negative rail

when having single rail supply, just one channel's LED is allowed

............same breed as Sissy, but Sissy being more equal animal

:clown:
 
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nice amp per se

of course, Blue Led being a necessity, Papa's secret ingredient

to relieve more of secrets - one channel must have Blue LED powered from positive rail, while second channel must have Blue LED powered from negative rail

when having single rail supply, just one channel's LED is allowed

............same breed as Sissy, but Sissy being more equal animal

:clown:

Hi,

May I know why the LED needed to be blue and not RED, GREEEN etc...

And why only one channel if for single rail?
 
At risk of publicly confirming a nearly complete lack of knowledge, let me try to expand on ZM’s succinct (but I think lighthearted) notes.
The LED can be any colour - blue is a kind of signature for some Pass amps, so maybe the builder intended it as a bit of an hommage to NP. Or maybe blue is a favourite colour - who knows?
One thing about blue LED’s though, they can be noisy, relative to other colours. For a single LED one could opt to move the tap to a reservoir capacitor in the power supply board where any injected noise can be dealt with a bit better.
 
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I finally pulled my SissySIT out and replaced with F3 on my main system. The amp serves 500Hz to 20kHz in an active horn rig. I adjusted for gain difference and sat back to enjoy.


ZenMod - You're right about being similar breed to SissySIT. F3 is indeed a very nice sounding amp. It will take some very critical listening to make detailed notes to compare the 2 amps. In the first little while listening I can say the F3 shares many similar traits. Openness, immediacy, space, ease.